TRAINED police child-abuse investigators did not interview an alleged victim of a government carer  now charged with sexually abusing seven preschoolers  on the advice of a Families SA supervisor.

Sources told The Advertiser police did not launch an investigation into a claim of in-appropriate behaviour by the man after the supervisor verbally advised they did not feel there was any substance to it.

The Advertiser has also learned that while the man had been subjected to up to three individual types of screening before being employed that included a police check and psychological testing similar to that applied to police officers, a concern was raised at an aspect of his results.

However, the man passed the screening tests, despite the concern raised, and was employed as a care worker.

Education and Child Development Department deputy chief executive David Waterford last night said: “There were no indications in the testing of a predisposition to child sex abuse.”

At an at-times heated press conference yesterday, Mr Weatherill refused to comment on a report in yesterday’s Advertiser that revealed the charged care worker, 32, had been the target of an internal investigation a year ago.

The Advertiser revealed an allegation against the man was investigated internally and cleared him. He was then allowed to return to work with children.

At press conferences on Tuesday, both Families and Communities Minister Jennifer Rankine and Mr Waterford indicated there was no suspicion surrounding the carer in the workplace prior to police receiving information about his alleged distribution of child exploitation material on June 6 this year.

Neither revealed he had been the subject of an allegation, internally referred to as a “care concern’’, that had been investigated a year ago.

Ms Rankine also said the care worker had passed all screening checks before being employed, but made no mention of the concerns raised in one of them.

“....the first thing I asked myself was how with all of these things in place could someone get through all of those checks with no indication,” she said on Tuesday.

The man is facing seven counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with preschool children at a government-run home over 18 months, up until late 2012.

Police have allegedly seized more than 100,000 images and 600 videos from his southern suburbs home depicting child exploitation.

Should Childhood Development Minister Jennifer Rankine resign over the latest revelations?

Child abuse expert Professor Freda Briggs yesterday said the fact both the alleged victim and perpetrator were not interviewed by police following last years care concern notification was “totally unacceptable’’ and such interviews “should be conducted by experts’’.

“It is totally inappropriate, especially if the interview is being conducted by someone they work with,’’ she said.

“They are going to be biased, aren’t they?’’

Professor Briggs said the alleged perpetrator should have been interviewed by trained police officers and the child by trained psychologists and paediatricians at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

“They are the experts, that’s where the experts are. Why on earth would you let a child be interviewed in the house with others there?’’ she said.

While not commenting directly in the current case, Children’s Guardian Pam Simmons said while police resources would be an issue if all allegations of alleged abuse were handled by their investigators “that is something that has to be considered’’ along with other responses.

“We will have to review how notifications are assessed in the first instance and how they are responded to,’’ she said.

Both senior police and Mr Weatherill have warned the community to expect more allegations as police continue to examine the seized material.

On ABC radio yesterday morning, Ms Rankine denied last year’s internal investigation had been covered up because it had not been revealed during press conferences on Tuesday.

“It is absolutely not in our interest to cover up anything,’’ she said.

“No it is not. Absolutely not. We are going to be going through every bit of this person’s employment history. We’ll be looking at every bit of our practices and our procedures. We are committed to doing as best we can ensuring that no person who has intent to harm children can get through our processes.

“There are things that I do know that I can’t tell you. I have briefed the Opposition as much as I can brief them. It is a very difficult set of circumstances to have information that you can’t share.’’

“What I can say though is that I asked the minister to ensure that every piece of relevant information is in the public sphere.

“I am confident she has done that. The only information that is not in the public sphere is information we have had specific advice that we cannot share with the broader community. That goes with our discussions with the Opposition and the broader community.’’

He said the Government had made “contentious judgments’’ about following the legal advice provided to it in releasing information concerning the case.

“What is central here is the investigation underway, a live investigation, and a prosecution that is already on foot,’’ he said.

“I am not going to – and my ministers are not going to – take any step that could put at any risk the proper prosecution of these matters.’’

CALLERS LEFT COLD ON ABUSE HOTLINE

Tim Williams

SUSPECTED child abuse cases are not being reported because hotline waiting times have again blown out, child protection experts warn.

The average waiting time for the Child Abuse Report Line is now almost 17 minutes, up from about 11 minutes two years ago. Delays can be much longer at the busiest times – including after school when teachers are trying to make reports.

News_Rich_Media: South Australia has been rocked by another shocking child sex scandal within government-run facilities

UniSA School of Education senior lecturer Dr Elspeth McInnes said teachers were still waiting “an hour or more”, despite the Government hiring more phone operators.

“It’s particularly at the end of term when educators worry what will happen when they won’t see the child (through the holidays),” she said.

Dr McInnes said there would “inevitably” be cases in which members of the public, often reticent about making reports, would give up if for-ced to endure long waits.

The admission about growing hotline waiting times comes at a time when the wider community is reeling from news about a man charged with allegedly sexually abusing seven children in a residential care home.

Dr McInnes said while some reports could be made online, that was not always possible. “If English isn’t your first language or you are not really confident with your literacy, the online stuff isn’t going to be appropriate for you,” she said, adding the wait time also became a “de facto screening” process for weeding out less serious reports.

Australian Education Union state president David Smith said the longer waiting times were “disturbing”.

“It’s really very difficult because it’s an obligation in schools that (teachers) have to make the report,” he said.

Child Development Minister Jennifer Rankine told The Advertiser social workers spent an average of an hour recording and assessing each call.

“Tackling child abuse and neglect is the most important thing we do and we treat every call with the seriousness it deser-ves,” she said. “Because every report is thoroughly assessed by a fully qualified social worker, a significant increase in demand has had an impact on call waiting times. In response, we’ve already recruited the equivalent of 10 (extra) social workers, with a further 10 full-time equivalents to be recruited this year.”

By the end of the year, the call centre will have 69.5 full-time equivalent staff, up from 49.5 two years ago. The 36,168 phone and online contacts in 2013-14 was a rise of 3257 on the previous year’s total of 32,911. They produced 44,164 notifications, up from 39,733.

State Budget papers show there were 5923 reports requiring investigations last financial year, an increase of 590. The Families SA website says the hotline’s busiest times are 11am to noon and 3pm to 4pm.